CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland has become the first U.S. market
destination for Toronto's Mill Street Brewery, the latest in a line of Ontario
brewers to make their way to Northeast Ohio this year.

"Everyone sees Cleveland as a mecca for craft beer," co-founder Steve
Abrams told The Plain Dealer on a recent visit.

"Consumers get it," he said, stressing why Cleveland was chosen as the
inaugural launching point for the brewery's U.S. distribution. "It's close enough
to Toronto. The location makes sense, and we share the Great Lakes."

What Ohioans
can expect

Mill Street Brewery, named for its street address, opened in 2002. It touts
Original Organic, a lager, as its flagship beer. It's also the brewer's inaugural
beer in Ohio and is distributed by RC Distributors. Suggested retail price is $8.99
for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans, and it will be available in kegs. Ontario's
first certified organic lager, it's straw-colored, has a yeasty, malty taste, and
is a very low 4.2 percent alcohol.

"We're Canada's largest producer of organic beers, which sounds
awesome - but there aren't that many," he said.

Cobblestone Stout, available in kegs now, will be available in cans in
June. It's made with a widget for its dose of nitrogen, has a chocolatey taste,
and also is 4.2 percent alcohol.

"There was a lot of trial and error in that," Abrams said. "These
things would explode, they'd hit the ceiling. It was 'fire in the hole!' I'd
take them to my neighbors and say 'watch out!' "

The production part of the built-in widget was smoothed out. No more
explosions.

The name Cobblestone comes from the streets in the area, made from
stones from Canton, of all places.

What Mill
Street brews

Mill Street – which earned Canadian Brewery of the Year honors in 2007-09
- brews more than several dozen different draft offerings. Here's part of the
brewery's bottle portfolio:

Its overall portfolio includes an eclectic mix, including a barley
wine that tops 10 percent alcohol. But mostly the brewing is done "in Euro-lager
style," he said.

"We are not introducing any beers high on the IBU (International
Bitterness Units) scale in Ohio," he said. "That's a saturated market now. We do
make them. We're more into sessionable,
classic styles."

View full sizeOriginal Organic, a lager, and Cobblestone Stout -ÂÂ two of Mill Street'Âs offerings.Marc Bona, The Plain Dealer

How Mill
Street Brewery came about

In a way, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-raised Abrams followed a winding, fateful
path that involved many fields other than beer.

Abrams, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees from New York
University, taught English but "got sick of the bureaucratic side of teaching."
He played guitar in the band Mini-King that enjoyed some success. "We had a
record deal, Phil Ramone was the producer, then the whole company imploded, and
the record never got released." Abrams answered an ad in the New York Times
that required writing skills; it turned out it was for a job as a mutual-fund
analyst. Out of his domain, but he got the job, and it led to him meeting his
Canadian-born wife.

"I moved there (Toronto) not for beer but for love," Abrams said.

They were married just weeks before 9/11.

The tragedy in his home city "became a watershed moment," he said. It
made him think. Before long, he had a plan – sort of. He wanted to open a pub.
A friend suggested a brewery.

"I found Toronto was missing beer I was getting in the U.S.," he said.

Before he knew it, he was at an auction bidding on brewing equipment
from Colorado.

"We lost the bid, then this guy calls in a Texas drawl - 'You boys
still interested? You got 48 hours to come up with the money.' " Turns out the
winning bidder didn't have any money.

Like virtually all start-up brewers, he rolled up his sleeves.

"You weld things," he said. "You learn you're not such a good welder."

Opportune timing hit Mill Street. The brewery held its grand opening
in December 2002, and a jazz festival happened to be taking place simultaneously.

"Thirty-thousand people came," Abrams said. "There was no pushing or shoving
– they were happy to be there."

Mill Street's home is the Distillery District, which brings an artisan
feel to the neighborhood. Bakers, chocolatiers, and glass blowers all were neighboring
tenants.

Life moves quickly: Abrams' wife had a baby in May 2003. And after
some initial "lean times," things took off, and the brewery expanded in 2006,
adding a brewpub.

Mill Street follows fellow Ontario brewers into the U.S. market this year: Flying Monkeys came in from
Barrie, about an hour north of Toronto. They were followed by Lake of Bays,
which is located about two hours north of Toronto.

On Mill
Street's neighborhood when the brewery opened: "People
thought we were nuts. We called it 'the land of groundhogs and prostitutes.' "

On Ohio's
craft-beer culture: "It's nice to see a renaissance here. ... Ohio has
much more of a beer culture. Hopefully there's room for guys like us."

On
Toronto's emerging craft-beer culture: "The days in Canada where you ask
someone 'Are you a Molson drinker? Are you a Labatt drinker? They're long gone."

On the
trial-and-error of brewing: "We made a rye. The first one, it turned to
gelatin. We had to shovel it out."

Finally ...

Mill Street is brewing a "beer schnapps" called "hopfenschnapps." Abrams
said the distilled beer comes in a skinny bottle and likens it to grappa. It's
110 proof – 55 percent alcohol – and is caramel/amber in color.

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